


Taking time to Know you

by Neondragon54



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Getting Together, M/M, Rich Guy Nursey, Watchmaker:Dex, i dunno
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2019-10-16 12:31:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 9,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17549732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neondragon54/pseuds/Neondragon54
Summary: Will told his parents about not going to college, about how browsing on the internet had lead to an apprenticeship in watchmaking and all his sister had said was 'Oh that sounds good because there will always be rich men with fancy watches that need fixing' and he had just shrugged and continued packing..Except the rich guy who was standing in front of him was looking incredibly desperate, and incredibly hot.





	1. Chapter 1

Will had been taking things apart since he could remember. It was annoying for just about any adult that crossed his path and gave him something, but he always put it back together, eventually.

He learned how to put easy things back together first, pens and easy mechanisms such as the fancy push drawers his neighbours had just put in their refurbished kitchen. Then, small mechanical toys that he got in the comics that he got monthly if he was good. His other neighbour gave him a bunch of instruments that he could take apart, first brass instruments that where literally just three buttons to press. He then attacked the woodwind section, carefully dissecting each and every pulley, spring mechanism and lever in a saxophone and clarinet.

At some point a website offering watchmaking apprenticeships crossed his paths and he applied for it on a whim. He knew he wouldn’t be able to go to college, he wasn’t that good at school and he sure as hell couldn’t be able to afford it. He had saved as much money as he could from working on the lobster boats and fixing just about every wind/brass instrument in his town but that wasn’t enough.

When he told his family that he had been accepted to the scholarship he was surprised to see how pleased they were, he was sad to leave Maine, but according to Steph, the only girl in his CompSci class at the leaving party ‘Eventually every job will be taken over by robots but there will always be rich guys with nice watches, hell they might even be hot’. And that was his problem right now.

Two years later that was his exact problem, he was sitting by his desk, all his tools set up in front of him and suddenly a very rich, very hot boy was standing in front of him, showing a very expensive rolex and was silently looking desperate. “Can I help you?” he asked, clearing the desk slightly.

“Yeh, I bought this for my Mum but I dropped the box and it’s stopped working.”

‘Five dollars in the pot if it’s a wind up but he forgot that fact’ Will whispered to himself as he stood up to grab the box. He pulled the watch carefully out of the green box and inspected it. Definitely a wind up but that didn’t seem like the problem. “So, it’s not the wind up mechanism, I can look at it but you won’t get it back for a couple of hours.”

“Is that all, the guy down road said it would be a couple of days.”

“Well, Geoff is a dick that overcharges and takes far too long, nice watch by the way.” He had to say that, it was part of the festive collection and this particular one was priced ‘upon request’ which he only knew because Sarah, the other person that ran the store, had been talking about it all week. “If you want to go do something, I should get it back to you by five.”

“How much is it going to be?” Cute, rich guy asked.

“Around 100 dollars,” He answered, looking at him, “But you don’t have to pay until you pick it up.”

“Is that all?” Hot, rich guy was going to get on Will’s nerves if he wasn’t going to leave soon and he couldn’t think of a response fast enough before he interrupted again. “Got any other things that need to be fixed today?”

“Yes,” Will answered grabbing his eyefix and pressing the microscope onto the glasses that clicked into place. He sat down and placed the watch in front of him, grabbing a screw driver he carefully removed the back plate and placed that to the side. He could immediately see what was wrong, one of the springs where knocked ever so slightly out of place, he carefully removed the cogs and other pins and realigned the spring. He placed the rest of the cogs back in place and made sure he wound it up so he could hear the soft ticking noise emanating from it. Will looked up and saw the digital clock on the corner of the computer had decided to skip 2 hours. He looked up and he also so hot rich guy sitting on Sarah’s desk with a moleskine notebook out.

“You been here the entire time?” Will asks removing his glasses and grabbing the box,. He placed it in carefully and stood up to move to Sarah’s desk where the money stuff was. He gave the box, still open to the man and grabbed the credit card reader.

“That will be $100 but if you want to donate to the music service we run here that would be much appreciated.”

“Music service?” Hot, rich guy asked, cocking his head slightly, “What’s that?”

“We fix instruments for anyone who asks because students can’t afford it and certain companies don’t pay musicians as much as they pay their actors.” Will answered.

“Yeh I can donate to that, how much?” Will was going to have to give a name to hot, rich guy because at some point he was going to accidently refer to him as that and that would definitely be a bad idea.

“However much you deem necessary,” Will answered passing the machine over, “Just press a number in there, press the green button and wait for your card to be asked for.”

He waited for hot guy to pass the machine bag to him and smiled, “So I sorted out the spring on the watch and if you break it in the next two years we can still service it for a reduced fee, if I can have a name you won’t have to hold on to a receipt and business card for the next years.”

“Derek,” Hot guy answered, “Derek Nurse.” He smiled as he grabbed the bag Will was holding out and walked out of the door.

Well shit


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn’t that Derek Nurse wasn’t famous it was just that he was famous in certain circles and those circles did not run in Dex’s brain until 11, and now he was kicking himself that he didn’t recognise him, now that he could recognise Derek’s many _many_ circles. Those including Musical Theatre, voice acting and poetry and that was all Dex could think of in the minutes between him leaving the shop and Sarah bustling in with her filled bag balanced carefully on her shoulder and two coffee cups that Dex quickly grabbed before they fell on something expensive.

“Sorry I’m late,” She smiled as she gathered her curly hair into a poof of a ponytail, “Did I miss anything whilst I was trapped on the B-Train for half an hour?”

“Someone came in with the new Datejust, with the butterflies.” He answered as she set her bag down. He passed the iced coffee back to her as she placed her laptop onto the table.

“The shops only been open for an hour.”

“Two,” Will mutters but he had opened early because he couldn’t sleep and wanted to get some instruments fixed. He didn’t want to admit it though because Sarah had been adamant that he actually looked at the advertised times and used them every once in a while.

“Well we’ve already talked about predictable times that are advertised and I’m not doing that argument again, I’m also pissed that you didn’t keep it to fix later,”

“It was a small fix, didn’t take long.” He answered sipping the black coffee.

The bell rung and suddenly they where back in business, A rich guy buying for his son for getting C’s in all his lessons, a rich guy buying a watch for his son because he had gotten engaged, a rich lady buying a watch for her husband for an anniversary. It was easy for Dex to not do anything, if he just looked busy behind the screen then no one would disturb him. At some point a watch was passed to him via Sarah who just whispered to look busy, Will nodded slightly knowing full well that she only did this when she did not want him to get involved, or when she didn’t want him to lose his temper. He looked up them and saw an entire family enter the shop. The family of four crowded into the shop and Dex flicked his eyes up as he absentmindedly screwed the back loose.

“If you don’t mind I would rather we talked to the man in the shop, he looks like he could be knowledgeable on the fine art of watchmaking.” The man told Sarah and Will grimaced just a little bit.

“Sorry Sir, but William is rather busy at the moment, but I am perfectly free to help you with whatever you need.” Sarah’s customer service voice just slightly ebbing into sarcasm. “What can I help you with?” Will pushed the microscope monocle closer into his eye and pulled the tiny gears apart. He could recognise the watch now, a training watch that Sarah’s Dad had given him whilst he was training, it normall. The man grumbled at Will not budging but started instructing Sarah on what he needed, at some point Coffee was offered and Will had to distract the tiny eight-year-old for grabbing the plastic protective screen and pulling on it. A few words from both the wife and husband flew his way, “You do know if I walked down the street, that guy would charge less.”

“I bet William would know what I needed,”

“How about we ask William what he thinks.”

“Are you just over-charging so we might think that you know what you’re doing, it’s not working.” The last was said by the teenager who looked an awful clone of the meme which had the guy standing on a path.

“If you would like to look at my colleagues certifications than that is fine but I can assure you that we have the best price in the city, all of the watches sold here come with a two year insurance and currently we are half an hour after the designated opening and closing times so if you could please decide which watch you are willing to buy I’m pretty sure we would be willing to give you a discount for your troubles.”

The man huffed at William almost willing to stay longer but at this point the eight-year-old was lying on the floor screaming for attention. Sarah processed the transaction, carefully packaged the five watch boxes, she ushered them through the door and flipped the sign round to close.

“Have you eaten anything today?” She asked “Or have you only just had the three cups of coffee that I have chucked at you. If you want to go out we can have the monthly meeting in that new lobster place.”

“Every time, you always offer lobster, lets go to the Mexican down the road,”

“Haha, we’re going to the Italian alright and I’m calling racism,” But she was laughing as she picked her stuffed bag and grabbed the keys to lock up. Will patted himself down, checking he had everything and pulled his coat over his shoulders. He shut the door behind him and expertly caught the keys thrown at him to lock up. He gave them back to her and they walked down the street as te sky slowly darkened around them, and Will felt calm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a lot of you folks decided that you wanted to comment and kudos and jees, thank you so much. I shoved my OC in here and ya'll have to put up with her and this was updated really late so thanks for waiting if you waited and all that.   
> My tumblr is @Goldstarsforall but i dont really post OMGCP stuff there (its mainly dungeons and dragons) but I may as well promote my own shit.   
> BUT MAINLY, 91 kudos, thats a lot and I've gotta say thank you. this update is really short but I have five other chap twos started and this was the only one finished so I hope oyu like it


	3. Chapter 3

“You know Larissa,”  
“Lardo,” William automatically corrected but Sarah just carried on.

“She wanted to do some art exhibit inspired by some watches and that could boost sales, also if we really start boosting the whole online store thing that could help us really boost sales but overall we have really smashed last months record so we’re gonna keep doing what we’re doing,”

The waiter interrupted them by placing the food in front of them and they carried on the convastation, “Pretty sure we’re gonna get a lot of instruments to fix over the next couple of weeks because Bitty says that Julliard’s finals are next week.”

“Of course Eric would say that he’s always breaking his clarinet, didn’t he say that he was joining the big band?”

“Yeh but he would have had to play the saxophone and he couldn’t get the rhythm right.” William answered smiling slightly, the students for Julliard where rich enough to donate money or whatever they had on them to keep Will’s small music service afloat.

“I had a call from East Side saying that there instruments needed fixing, I said you could do it sometime this week but if you want to do it next week I don’t mind, I don’t think you have anything to do, but I don’t want to assume anything.”

“I don’t have anything planned and you know that, I can do it tomorrow if you can cover for me and yeh, you know the drill.” He smiled widely as he grabbed a slice of pizza and stuffed it in his mouth.

“So apparently the date-just that you fixed earlier is being resold in six digits figures, you get a name for the guy.”

“Scmerek Durse.” He mumbled as he tried to reduce the amount of food spat everywhere, “Sorry, Derek Nurse.” He watched as Sarah all but fell out of her chair.

“You mean that, Derek Nurse was in our shop, and you didn’t deem that important to tell me, not like he hasn’t done anything important recently, not that he didn’t singlehandedly revive broadway with his latest musical and all is voicing one of my favourite characters in ducktales. (A/N Nursey is now Lin Manual Miranda and it was going to happen, and I am sorry) You couldn’t just say that.”

“I honestly forgot,” William apologised as he ate some more pizza, “I didn’t recognise ‘til you came in and now I don’t want to talk about it.” They finished there pizza and Sarah snuck out whilst Dex was paying, like she always did. He pulled his phone out and texted her a goodbye before boarding the train back to his flat.

 

He woke up the next morning at 5am in the morning and checked his phone. It was fairly empty of apps, one idle game, a calendar app that synched his plans with Sarah’s so they both knew what was going on. A list of contacts of clients and schools. He didn’t have much in the way of friends, some of the musicians from Juilliard and NYU invited him out to party’s and such but he was never willing to get drunk so he didn’t go out often. He texted Sarah to remind him that he was going to that school and made himself breakfast.

He had tried meditating in the morning after just about everyone suggested he should, he had tried that, as well as every type of journaling, crafting, reading but nothing seemed to stick. He grabbed his phone to remind Sarah his plans and pulled a graphic shirt on. Nothing important to dress nice for today. He watched the light slowly filter into his tiny room that served as a studio apartment. He pulled out a box from above his make-shift wardrobe, turns out that now matter how crafty you are, ikea is in an entirely different realm of screws and bolts.

He ran in the early morning light, up and down the neat rows of blocks, manhattan was pure bliss in the early morning and as his feet took him down the streets towards the centre of the island (It’s at this point where I realised that I do not know the right amount of information to set this thing in New York). He paused at Times Square, the bright lights dazzeled him in the early morning but there were already tourists cramming in to look at the advertisements. He started running again, down Broadway until he had to stop again to take a quick breather.

“Hey, you’re that watch fixer aren’t you?” A voice he sort of recognised yelled at him from above, he looked up and saw Derek yelling from an upstairs window, “If you want to chill for a bit than we can go out for Breakfast.”

Dex threw a thumbs up at him and saw Derek hastily retreat from the sash window, a free meal on a rich guy was not the worst way to start the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOP AM I ABLE TO STICK TO SCHEDULE, NO  
> AM I ABLE TO WRITE IN ONE CONSISTANT STYLE, NO   
> DO I HAVE A PHYSICS TEST TOMORROW THAT I AM NOT PREPARED FOR BECAUSE I SPENT ALL DAY WRITING THIS   
> H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS YEAH


	4. Chapter 4

The Breakfast /Brunch thing with Derek Nurse (!?) was nice. Well it was nice to begin with because rich people have _taste._ And Will was not the first to admit that Derek Nurse (!?) was easy on the eyes as it was.

Not one to be impolite, Will ordered the cheapest thing which was Pancakes that where $20 each, which was ridiculous in Will’s brain but then Derek freaking Nurse ordered the avocado toast which was at least $25, then ordered a pair of Mimosas because he was classy man.

“How long have you been doing the watch fixing stuff then?” He asked, leaning back and sipping the drink.

“Two years, nearing the third anniversary soon.” God, Will felt so awkward, here he was hanging out with a certified icon, this man got invited to the Oscars for god’s sake. “Started as soon as I left High School, what about you?”

“Well, I’ve always been in theatre my entire life really, did the lion king twice, young Simba and then old Simba which was wild, started acting when I was five, did animations and stuff which was also chill.”

“Got some stories?” He probably had loads of stories, but Will was too tired to pay attention, also Derek’s eyes where really pretty.

“Not as many as you probably, rich people are so entitled?”

“Well there was a guy who refused to buy a watch unless I was serving him which was so Dumb because the actual appraiser was in the room but because she’s Mexican and a woman she ‘wasn’t qualified enough’ that happens surprisingly often.” Will answered digging into his pancakes, damn they where good, probably not worth $20 but they where still pretty good and they came with Chocolate syrup and strawberry’s. “And rich folks rub me the wrong way to begin with but like, I’m definitely not going to serve you after you have been actively racist you know, left that behind me in Maine.”

“You’re not a New Yorker native.”

“Apparently you become a New Yorker the first time you see a guy pissing on the subway, and I could say I was a new Yorker the first night I arrived here.” He watched Derek snort with laughter, which was far too beautiful for what was actually happening. Which a certified Gay Icon having Brunch at nine in the morning with a sort of sweaty runner eating pancakes and avocado toast.

“Got any plans for today?” And Will could have melted under those eyes, soft and green and perfect in any and all ways.

“Sadly I have to go to a school to fix some instruments, but I would love to hang out with you some other time.”

“Sadly?” Derek smiled, giggling as a passing waiter replaced his Mimosa with another/

“You know what I mean.” Will smiled in response, he didn’t want to, but he couldn’t help himself. Derek was really nice, a lot nicer than what he expected. And he’s still not sure what he was expecting.

The rest of the breakfast lulled into a comfortable silence, the type that Dex had never had whilst living back in Main but having about half a dozen siblings will do that for you. Around ten minutes later, Derek broke the silence, “This has been nice,” he smiled, “Its been ages since I could just do this. We should do this again.”

“I’m not going to say no to a free breakfast.” Will answered, “No, it’s been really nice.”

“Give me your number and I’ll message you.” They swapped numbers, and parted ways. Will smiling all the way back to his flat.

 

 

He texted Sarah as soon as he exited the shower, telling her all what happened, and she sent in response a whole set of emojis that he didn’t understand. He arrived at the school to see even more messages on his phone, but he didn’t have time to check them as he signed into the school and strung a visitor pass around his neck. He greeted the music teacher, some ex-wannabe popstar that went on a couple of tours and never really hit the moon and burnt up in the atmosphere instead of falling among the stars. Luckily most of his tools where small enough to carry by himself. “What do you want me to fix than?”

“Three saxophones, a few trumpets and a trombone? Is it true that you went on a date with Derek Nurse this morning, its all over the media?”

“How do you break a trom, no I was not, he’s a friend, Do you want me to fix these instruments or not.”

He knew the way to the band room now, turn right down the corridor, past the English department and then up the stairs. The instruments where already out and the four or so teens that instruments where broken where looking slightly panicked, slightly scared. God Will hated band kids.

He managed to fix them without any problems, a lot of it was just band kids being dumb, the trombone was a dent, something that didn’t even matter in the grand scheme of things, trumpets just required enough of a pull to release the tuning slide and various valves. Saxophones where the hardest, the pads had worn down or the pulleys have been misplaced, but after two hours he managed to sort it all out. The last one was a tiny girl, had to be under fiver foot that managed to drop her Bari Sax and had two buttons nocked out.It took about half an hour and she hovered throughout the process but unlike the trombone player she didn’t speak a word.

“I’m all done now, so I’ll just leave, and you can ring me if any more instruments are broken but you should be breaking up for summer now, is that alright.”

“That’s fine.” The teacher responded and Will left the school, grabbing a coffee from a nearby bodega and made his way to the watch shop quickly.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i now I said that there was going to be a hiatus but I figured it would be better for me to at least attempt to finish it so their would be one less thing to worry about  
> and thank you so much for your comments, it really helped :)


	5. Chapter 5

The watch shop was still open that day, but it was what Sarah called a ‘if my dad could see us now he would be rolling in his grave day’. Aka, they weren’t wearing suits and Sarah was very obviously hung over. They still looked professional, but just not up to the standard Sarah’s dad had put in place. “Larissa was on the phone today,”  
  
“Lardo,”Will immediately corrected, passing out the freshly bought coffee and Sarah’s milkshake. “What did she have to say.”  
  
“She definitely wants to do the art thing and she’s going to bring her lawyer with her this afternoon to see if we can do this legally.”  
  
“Is that her boyfriend, that lawyer?” Will asked checking the crappy calendar behind him. “And that’s this afternoon?”  
  
“Yeh probably, she’s a starving artist and he’s her boyf so there’s that going on.” Sarah responded like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Also Bits, wanted to tell you that there was going to be an onslaught of rich teens coming in to get their instruments serviced and all that from tomorrow onwards, his boyfriend told me that they had just moved the exams forward so we should be making some money from then. And what’s new with you?”  
  
“Not much. Went to a school to fix some instruments,” he eyed her warily. “Why?”  
  
“Have you not checked the internet in the last two hours. Actor Derek Nurse in date with hot ginger fever. That’s cosmopolitan. Someone else wrote, Fancy Freckles, who is that cute boy Derek nurse is with. There’s a whole butt ton more as well. You went on a date with Derek Nurse,”  
  
“It wasn’t a date, he invited me to brunch.” Was he blushing, oh god he was blushing and his face was turning red and he was slowly entering the nightmare zone and this was why he never should have left Maine.  
  
“You went to brunch, that’s a first date,” Sarah responded, “Did you ask for caffeine free to spite me.” She asked poking her frappachino with the straw. “That is a punishable offence. Dollar in the jar.” He threw a dollar coin her way and set about working on his laptop, no watches needed to be fixed because huzzah, no one had broken one recently. And he had nothing else to do, so he could carry on coding various projects, because he could.  
  
Around two hours later Lardo and Shitty waltzed onto the shop, Shitty passing a tote bag to Lardo and then moving over to Dex’s desk to annoy him. “Do you know Derek Nurse?”  
  
“No I fixed his watch and he bought me breakfast today. That’s it, two days between now and yesterday morning, somehow the entire world thinks we’re dating.”  
  
“Would you like to be dating?” Shitty asked, “the nature of modern society us created such a landscape where most men are uncomfortable about even being asked on a date, even if they are into people of the same gender.”  
  
“No, well, maybe, I’m not sure. He’s really pretty, have you seen his eyes, they change colour. I swear they do, they’re kind of green but I swear they shimmer.”  
  
They heard Sarah snort out a laugh and she interrupted, “I’m sorry Will but we do not live in a fanfiction universe, eyes cannot change colour.”  
  
“Well according to John Johnson, the cello player, we’re actually in a fanfiction universe written by a depressed 17 year old British girl.”  
  
“And we both agreed that that was impossible. Anyway his eyes I swear, they changed,”  
  
“Wishful thinking,” Lardo inturrupted. “Dex, Nursey is a lovely bloke but you should get used to the pap before you go onto anymore dates, or at least accept that people are going to wonder and report on it.” She turned back round and went back to her sketchbook and Sarah.  
  
“So what,” Dex started, “He’s way out of my league anyway. Shitty do you still have that watch your grandparents gave you.”  
  
“Sure,” He unclapsed the metal watch and passed it over the divide, “Can you make it break when my grandparents come up in like three weeks, it would really piss them off.”  
  
“I guess so, won’t be able to time it to the exact day but like, that’s not my job.” Dex responded as he unscrewed the back, “If I remove the winding spring and you don’t wind it up until you greet them then you can blame it on them.” He responded removing a tiny spring and placing it in his tray. “Come back in like three weeks to get it back in place, if you come before them I will designate instruments over you.”  
  
“Yeh. That’s chill.” Shitty responded and it sent literal shivers down Dex’s spine. That was Derek’s phrase, and it shoved him right back into that mourning, looking at Nursey’d hands that seemed to dance in each movement, listening to the feet tap out drum rhythms to the slow jazz that played around them. The way that even in his obviously lazy clothing, a company shirt and sweatpants he still managed to look amazing. His cheekbones, Jesus Christ those cheekbones. The things Dex would do for those cheekbones, probably more than what he would do for a Klondike bar and he would do a lot for a Klondike bar. He wanted to stay up, reading books together in a room filled with plants that wouldn’t die this time and maybe a cat? Not ginger tho. He would be reading Hitchhikers Guide for the umpteenth time and Derek would probably be reading something classical like Pride and Prejudice or Hamlet.  
  
Will would happily bet that Derek loves Hamlet.  
  
And they would sit there, peacefully until Dex would have to fix another rich guys watch, or Derek would have to go to his theatre and sort out one specific chord in the opening refrain.  
  
His phone buzzed wildly, wrenching him out of the day dream. He pulled it out of his pocket and checked the incoming flurry of texts. A lot of students where trying to book appointments for instruments. He shoved them all onto one group text and went, just come to the Watch Shop tomorrow at ten and we can do it then, we don’t do appointments. Messaged Bitty to say he’ll probably need to be sneaked into the dorm rooms tomorrow night to complete the repairs in time and checked the other messages.  
  
Unknown number:  
Hey it’s Derek Nurse here, I had a lot of fun today and I would love to do it again at some point.  
Also, I’ve just checked the internet and I’m really sorry about the paparazzi, I didn’t realise.  
And I totally get if you don’t want to do that again.  
  
Will started to text back a response, then deleted it, then tried again, the deleted it. “Just text him.” Sarah yelled, Shitty and Lardo had moved to looking at the display cabinets. So he just texted,  
I had a lot of fun as well and I would love to do it again :)  
  
Damn.


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning there was a line outside the Watch Shop, Dex wasn’t surprised, music kids take this exam seriously and these where top notch music kids. He opened up the shop, glad that the kids didn’t crowd him. About five of the usuals filtered into the shop and shut the door behind them. “Hey Dex, How are you doing sweetie?” A small blonde southern man stood by Sarah’s desk as he placed down a large stack of Tupperware down. “Holster went round and made a spread sheet on what repairs need to be done. And who needs services.”  
  
The tall blonde man that looked like he was on the verge of giving everything up entirely and moving to Europe and living out of a ruined castle for three hundred years. “Hey Holster.” Dex started as Holster placed the iPad down.  
  
“We have three instruments that are top priority and a few you can just ignore. It’s all colour coordinated.”  
  
“Thank you, are we doing it like normally?” Dex asked, normally involved post it notes and numbers and a lot of people possibly crying, not normally involved stickers and a larger crowd and a hell of a lot of people crying.  
  
“Normally.” That meant an army operation was about to commence.  
  
Due to the fact that Dex had a personal alarm clock that had him up early, the alarm clock called holy fuck is that the sun you need to get uppp my dude, around three quarters of the instruments where done before the first actual paying customer arrived, and surprise surprise it was none other then Derek Nurse, holding a broken watch.  
  
“Hey Dexter,” he smiled as he weaved past a crying trombone player, “Why’s it so busy?”  
  
“A college has shoved forward their exam dates and so we have Holster, Ransom, Bits and Jack here to help me organise folks.”  
  
“Oh hi, Nursey.” Jack started moving across the small and crowded room to greet him. “What are you up to?”  
  
“I was hoping to get a watched fixed, but it looks like you have too much on your hands at the mo?”  
  
“No, I’m sure I can fit you in, after all of this. It’s almost actual opening time for the shop so these people have to leave anyway. Can you wait till then, have one of Bit’s baked things, they are amazing.”  
  
The brilliant thing about fixing things was that he could hyperfixate, it was a beautiful thing really. To lose track of time by actually do something that mattered, not fumbling around with some squishy toy or what ever. Dex had been sorta lucky. A diagnosis in Anger Management issues had led to a diagnosis in ADHD and dyslexia at around ten years old. He was meant to be on medication, he wasn’t on medication. Medication was to lo expensive when his sister had type one diabetes and the cost of insulin was still increasing. So being able to fucking lose touch of reality was a skill he had never really learnt, so hyperfixating was what he greatly preferred.  
  
That meant that the remaining instruments passed in a disappointingly short amount of time. By the time the last one was in Sarah had already texted him asking for his coffee order. He sent a quick one back, which simply read,  
‘Black coffee, one shot of espresso and a caffeine booster.”  
  
He sat back and re-realised that Derek freaking Nurse was still sitting on Sarah’s desk. With brownie crumbs on his face and his fancy ass notebook open. He was hunched over it, as if it was both too private and too public for anyone to see and he glanced up every couple of minutes at Dex, not noticing he was watching until their eyes caught a few seconds later. They laughed and fell into an awkward silence, as Derek grabbed another brownie from the box. He silently ate it, maintaining eye contact with Dex until he swallowed, and started speaking.  
  
“I’m leaving my role next week.”  
  
“Is that good or?” Dex had no idea how the musical theatre industry works.  
  
“Yeh, Just weird. This is the first show where it’s not closing for the foreseeable future so it’s nice to relax. Someone wants be to play Rocky in Rocky Horror Picture Show and I am debating it.”  
  
“That’s the guy in the corset right?” Dex would be the first to admit musical theatre cult classics weren’t his forte but he could try.  
  
“No Rocky’s the one that just wears the underwear. There’s a bootleg online, well it’s the bootleg from the official recording of a Uk version. Stephen Fry’s one of the narrators.”  
  
“Oh, yeh. I know him,” QI was one of Dex’s favourite tv shows, even when he did have to use a VPN to get English Netflix.”  
  
“I would ask you to come round to watch it but it seems your going to be busy for the next couple of days.”  
  
“I mean, I might be able to shift some stuff around, but I’m not going to make any promises.” Dex responded, somehow turning more red.  
  
“That’s fine. But I seriously need you to check this out.” He passed the plush leather box over the plastic partition and Dex opened it.  
  
“Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I fixed this one two days ago.”  
  
“I am extremely clumsy and I was drunk,” Derek responded.  
  
The watch in question had very obviously been dropped, the face cracked slightly and the hands had fallen off. “It’ll take a while but Sarah should be coming in with coffee so you can bug her.” As if on cue Sarah walked in, holding a bag from the local bodega and a face that would make a dragon cower.  
  
“Are the music students gone? Or do I need to come back in half an hour?”  
  
“They’re all gone. I swear on my life and Bits made Brownies.”  
  
“SWEET.” She yelled, plonking a cup of coffee down and moving towards her desk, finally noticing Derek Nurse. “Holy shit, Dex. That’s Derek freaking Nurse, that’s you’re boyf.”  
  
“Shut up.” Dex growled, grabbing his coffee and spitting it back out. “This is decaffeinated. I hate you.” He went back to his microscopic eyepiece and started taking the watch apart. “Just shut it Sarah. I can’t cope with this today.”  
  
“Yeh, sure.” Sarah waved her hand in his direction before going back to her desk. He could sort of hear something being whispered the two of them but he managed to place the watch apart and just fix it. Taking as much time as it could because he couldn’t cope with anything else that day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going on holiday but like, this isnt good so thats it really, also as some of you might have guessed, this is written on my phone and emailed to myself so I can post it on my laptop.  
> Also like there are actual check please characters in this, which is good I guess.  
> LASTLY, THERE IS A FUCKING PLAN, finally, Like I have only just planned it and some OCs will be placed in so if you don't like OCs (which I fully get I hate reading OCs but they are in here now.)   
> I'm more proud of myself for planning a basic plot line quite honestly


	7. Hiatus anouncement again becuase my life

I said that I would update by tuesday next week but, like, a lot of stuff is going on and I cant cope with my health at the mo, both emotionally and physically I cannot cope so yeh

 

will update whenever i can 

 

thank you for your patience 


	8. This is an actual updatw dudes

It was two weeks later and Dex was positively beaming. Steph has anounced that she was coming up with her girlfriend Foxtrot as Foxtrot had an internship with a set design company. And Nursey was amazing.  
  
They hadn’t had the chance to meet up, the epic joy that was trying to fit rehearsals and a nine-to-five job to try and find matching free time. But two weeks later and Nursey had invited Dex round to his house!!! To watch movies, namely Rocky horror picture show. And Dex was stressed.  
  
His usual uniform for work was a suit and tie but that seemed too formal for the date, but his only other clothes where either working out or from his high school days. He couldn’t wear something that was over five years old. So he went out and after swallowing the New York prices for the unpteenth time and picked out a pair of dark wash denim jeans and a navy plaid shirt and with golden orange stripes that somehow managed to work. He changed quickly in a public toilet, trying not to be totally grossed out by the smell and then dashed out to buy a bottle of wine before he was too late to be called fashionable.  
  
He arrived at Nursey’s house holding a bottle of red wine because as his mum always said, red wine makes you seem educated and classy. And knocked on the door. He could hear someone dash down the stairs and almost trip which lead to a long string of swears before the door opened and a suitably disheveled and he stole Dex’s breath away.   
  
Now Dex would be the first to admit that he wasn’t a poet, English was not a strong point and yet he could wax and wane a thousand sonnets and verses about Derek Nurse, he was wearing a flower patterned button down, the type that could make even the straightest of men swoon and a pair of tight skinny jeans that look spray painted onto his killer dancer thighs. “How are you doing?” He managed to stutter out as Derek welcomed into his house. “I bought a bottle of wine,”  
  
“Classy,” Nursey smiled, “It’s a shoes off household.” So Dex gracefully kicked his shoes off, and followed Nursey into the kitchen.  
  
The house was big, far too big for a New York house, it was the same size as his one in Maine, a polished oak staircase with a small forest of fake flowers gathered around the banister. The kitchen was surprisingly lived in, crayon drawings-faded with time stuck to the fridge and a loaf of ginger cake on a cooling rack.  
  
“Want some cake, wine and a movie,” he asked, “I did have a whole meal planned but then I panicked over what to cook and then I couldn’t find the tomato sauce and eventually I gave up.” Derek was blushing now as he grabbed to wine glasses explaining why he hadn’t cooked anything. “In the end I panic baked a ginger cake so here we are.”  
  
“Is that an attack on my hair colour,” Dex jabbed carefully accepting the fancy looking wine glasses and placing on the counter. He then grabbed a cork-screw from a drawer and started wrestling with the wine.  
  
“What?, no of course not,” but he carefully cut a slice and placed it on a place, “Careful, the ginger hasn’t settled yet.”  
Dex bit into it and almost cringed st the flavour, there was a lot of ginger in it but he couldn’t falter, not in front of Derek freaking Nurse, “Do you want to watch the thing now?”  
  
“Yeh sure,” he smiled and they moved towards a living room. It was very nice plush leather sofas and a lot of Persian carpets, multicoloured lights hung from a small nook and it felt cosy.  
  
“You still want to watch Rocky Horror?” Nursey asked, fumbling under a sofa cushion to find the remote, “Its a live recording so you can’t here some of the bits but,”  
  
“It’s fine.” Dex smiled as he sat down on the edge of a sofa, before Nursey managed to find the video and they carefully settled down.  
  
Halfway through, when the guy came out of the fridge, Nursey leaned back and into Dex’s lap and he felt his world both stop and start. A process of nuclear fission was starting in his chest, moving as fast as humanly possible, more so even but it had also straight up stopped. An oxymoron was flourishing in his chest and he could only surrender to the ecstasy of emotions.  
  
Towards the end of the break and Nursey had found perhaps the most uncomfortable place for his elbow but that didn’t stop them. “Derek,” he mumbled as the two character started making out on the screen, “Where’s you’re toilet?” He asked, shifting slightly as Derek sat up from above him.  
  
“Up the stairs, first on the left,” he smiled as Dex managed to gain enough momentum to stand up and walk up the stairs. Quickly relieving himself and going back downstairs.  
  
“You left your phone,” Derek mumbled, and he passed the phone up. Three missed phone calls from Steph, about thirty messages from Steph, them Sarah and a good couple from Foxtrot.  
  
“Can I just take this,” Dex asked, and then stood into the hallway to ring someone, a few moments later and he dashed back in looking flustered, “I am really sorry about this, and it’s going to sound mad, but my friend from school was coming up to visit and essentially when she left her house in Maine a white van was following her and now she’s in New York there are a lot more policeman, and now apparently there’s a van parked outside of my flat and then Foxtrot saw a picture of them, and it’s of her. Essentially I think Steph thinks the FBI are after her, and knowing her they probably are, but I do really need to go,” and he was already off, his sneakers not even on properly.  
  
  
Alright so Steph was as good a genius as any but she was really into Social Engineering, like enough to make people start asking questions. On her fifteenth birthday she had asked for a hi-vis and a clipboard, purely because she had watched a documentary on it. She didn’t own a set of keys but she owned lockpicks that could do the job even faster. She was probably a grey-hat hacker at best and the only really thing stopping her was Ford her girlfriend. But that didn’t stop Steph from being a nervous wreck one hundred percent of the time, naturally she got along with Sarah like a house on fire.  
  
So half an hour later Dex arrived at his flat complex and ran up the stairs to see his door swinging wide open and Steph hunched in a back corner, crying. “I’m really sorry but I panicked.”  
  
“Have you done anything illegal?” Dex asked, going to awkwardly hug her.  
  
“No,” she paused for a few moments, “At least I don’t think so.  
  
“How do you, never mind. The van is still here right,”  
  
“Yeh, it’s in a nearby alleyway. According to Ford it is at least.”  
  
“Well then they might get a ticket.” Dex mumbled and Steph laughed so he finally stopped panicking.  
  
  
  
Nursey PoV, you knew it was going to happen.  
  
  
He had been ecstatic for the date, it had been years since people wanted to date him for him, not for his fame or money. When he had told his mums about him, they had been supportive and he had enjoyed chilling at the shop. When he had told Claire, a co-star, she had mentioned that a lot of the Watch shops where used for money-laundering. Expensive things passing from one place to another, some may not be written down professionally and a lot of the watches had no official pricing, an entirely informal music service could be an underground ring getting drugs into schools. He should be careful.  
  
He had brushed them aside though. Dex had been amazing at fixing watches and he had a actually seen the small gathering of music students getting instruments fixed and then he had met Sarah and ugh. Dex was a beautiful dream incarnate.  
  
And then Dex had come round with a bottle of wine that he had barely drunk and had kept fidgeting the entire movie, not that he particularly cared but it was annoying. When Dex had left the room to find his bathroom and his phone was left lying on the couch. Flashing and buzzing with messages, the few he had seen was two about a van following someone and the possibility of arrest.  
  
So Claire was totally right and Derek wanted to die, but then Will had come downstairs and left promptly after so he was by himself. Which was a shame, he had seemed like a nice guy, and actual nice guy that was interesting to talk to and Derek could have actually seen a relationship start and flourish.  
  
Instead he went up to his room, grabbed the Dex (tm) notebook and chucked it at the wall before flouncing onto his bed and promptly crying himself he to sleep. Amazing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know when I fanfic writer runs out of ideas but they carry on writing even though it’s slowly getting worse. 
> 
> This is that 
> 
> But follow me on tumblr at @goldstarsforall for critical role and crochet content.


	9. Chapter 9

Nursey had not responded to any of Dex’s texts for an entire fortnight, had not responded to his messages on Instagram for that length of time and Will was pretty sure he had blocked him on all levels of social media, including linked in. 

 

Not that it mattered though, he had his friends up and his job was still stable and the wage was decent. Sarah hadn’t messed up his coffee order and when Bitty had found out (how does he find it about everything) he had made Will’s favourite cookies. And it felt nice. 

 

Naturally Steph was feeling shit about the entire thing, and Dex really wanted not to blame her, but something was niggling at the back at his brain that it was her fault. It was fine, he had only known Derek for three weeks, four weeks from the first meeting and logically that is not enough time to be attached to someone, but it did feel like that a part of him had been ripped out. 

 

He went to work, fixed some watches. Went home and watched Monty Python skits, went into work, fixed some watches and. Went home and watched some Armstrong and Webber sketches. Went to into work, fixed some watches, watched Horrible History’s and got slightly drunk and cheap cider and it carried on for the next two weeks. It wasn’t fun. 

 

“You’re going to kill yourself eventually.” Sarah frowned, “And we’ve ran out of watches for you to fix. Like just take some time off, eat some ice cream and watch Mamma Mia. Take a break, watch some pirated comedy specials on YouTube. Relax take a break.” She placed his coffee down and balanced a fancy chocolate on top of it. “Look it’s not the end of the world that a boy broke up with you, we live in New York City. There are plenty of gay guys here, some of them even like Theatre. 

 

“It’s just that I can’t escape it,” Dex moaned, “The whole reason for Ford to be up here is because she has an apprenticeship working at the theatre with Nurse. Like she’s constantly talking about Rocky and the set design and there’s talk of a moving car instead of the traditional and ugh,” he banged his head against the table, a few spare screws jumping out of their containers, “Just leave me here to die.” 

 

“Yeh well we have customers and patrons that need us. So sit up and look busy, even if it is just watching fucking Magic the Gathering commentary with the captions on.”

 

“Magic the gathering?” Dex asked, tilting his head to get a better look up and Sarah. 

 

“I spiralled down YouTube a few weeks back and now I’m like, on it. It’s really fun you should try it some time.”

 

“I’ll pass.” He muttered, his brother was really into it. And it was a lot of money that he did admittedly now have but didn’t want to waste, “Look I get that you’re trying to help but can you just leave it.”

 

“Fine I’ll go back to giving you non-caffeinated coffee. You honestly want that again,” he pushed his head back down onto the table, “Yeh I thought not.”

 

“Just go back to fangirling over watches and leave me here to die.”

 

“Sure thing, just sit up so when people come in they don’t think I’ve murdered you.” And with that she flounced back to her seat, leaving Dex to his desk and to his mope. At some point he had grabbed his laptop and had started watching a YouTube video and then he had spiralled down that rabbit hole until midday and some rich looking twat came in with his mate. 

 

“Now the thing about watches is that, you know how cars go down in value, well watches go up in value. And here is the best place to get watches.”

 

“Can I help you sirs.” Sarah smiled from her desk, “I can get you a coffee or some Champagne if you want it.”

 

“Can we have some coffee here please?” And Dex grabbed two mugs and put some fancy expensive coffee into a speparte pot and started brewing it. 

 

“What can I do for you today gentlemen?” She smiled as she waltzed around and grabbed the mugs from Dex.

 

“Yeh me and my boyfriend are looking for watches because it’s more nicer then the rings.” 

Dex slammed his head against his desk once more and fell off his chair. 

 

“He’s going through a breakup and it’s rough, William,” she hissed. ‘Pull it together for like half an hour and be an actual human for the foreseeable future,’ her face seemed to say. 

 

“Sorry, er, congratulations.” He answered picking himself up. “Well done on your engagement.” 

 

“I’ll take it from here, have you been looking at any models, have a price range?” And with that the next two hours where filled of these two men being soo in love and soo perfect and soo cutesy that Dex almost wanted to puke but he had to be professional and he hated every second of it.

 

They both bought really expensive watches for each other as well, well into the millions range and as soon as they left Sarah popped the champagne, “That’s us sorted for the next two months at least, on the rent and on wages. Fuck yeh dude.” She smiled as she jumped over her table and passed him a bottle of champagne, “it’s also meeting night tonight so where do you want to go?”

 

“Fuck it I don’t care, but I promised Ford and Steph to hang out with them and,”

 

“Watch another British sketch show.” She finished off, “Come on Dex, we can get through this.”

 

“Yeh well, I’m not going to win this break up,” he frowned, looking up at the Sarah who was sipping the champagne delicately as she frowned. 

 

“Not with that fucking attitude, come,” she marched round his desk and grabbed his shoulder. “I’ll teach you how to win a breakup.”


	10. Sarah's ten points on how to win a breakup

Sarah’s ten ways on how to win a break up

Step number 1: Get tickets to see Nursey at the theatre. 

 

“He’s at that one that Ford’s working at right?” She asked, offering Dex the bottle of champagne when he shook his head she started chugging it. “Give me your phone?” She demanded and before he could even respond she grabbed it from his desk and started ringing someone. 

 

“Hey Ford, do you get any tickets to see Rocky Horror on opening nights,” a few seconds of pause and she fist pumped in success. “Thank you so much Ford, this is going to be amazing.”

 

She threw his phone down and ran up to him, “Next Friday, free your calendar because we, are going on a mandatory team exercise to watch Rocky Horror.”

 

Step 2. Get Dex the right clothes for opening night of a Cult Musical 

 

“Now it’s business causual, so like, Tux, Tux, Tux. Launderie,” she pointed at his lower region. And he blushed a violent pink, “It’s the rules, like Business,” she gestured at her top half, “Sex,” she gestured as her nether regions. “You’ve watched the thingy right?”

 

“Yeh, and then he dumped me.” He groaned, as Sarah grabbed his hands and started to drag him around the mall, “I really don’t get why we are doing this,”

 

“Because, William Tracey Island Poindexter, you are going to win this break up and if that means forcing you into Victoria Secret’s then it means forcing you into Victoria Secret’s.”

 

Step Three: Make Dex actually wear lacy underwear. 

 

“Now, I totally get that you’re from Maine and that going out in this would get you arrested but trust me, it will look amazing.”

 

“We’re matching,” he exclaimed, 

 

“We’re winning,” she smiled with him, “Let me out some makeup on you and we can get going.” 

 

Step Four: Make Dex wear makeup. 

 

“It’s literally just foundation, if you don’t want that, we’re going have to do eyes and a lip,”

 

“A lip?” Dex asked looking at her. 

 

“What the beauty gurus call lipstick cause theirs different types. No man up and put this on. It will look bomb,” 

 

“Why are we doing this again?” He frowned as she started attacking his face with a baby blue lipstick. 

 

“Because, we are Winning,” she trilled as she grabbed a mascara and started applying that to his eyes. 

 

Step Five: Hail a cab. 

“Look I am not going on the subway wearing trench coat,” Dex explained, “because I don’t want to flash anyone. Look I’ll pay but I am going to hate you for it the entire journey. I’m already hating this.” 

 

“Winniiinng,” she sang as the cab pulled up and they both climbed in. “You got the tickets,”

 

“Here they are,” he pulled them out of a pocket and she checked them, 

 

“Perfect. Let’s win this.”

 

Step Six: 

 

“Holy shit there’s a red carpet.” she squealed as there can pulled up slightly ahead of the theatre. “We have to go on it.” 

 

And Dex could see a multitude of people wearing ‘business casual’ huddled around the entrance. “We could just sneak in,” he frowned, “Look there are actual famous people on that, we’re not doing it,” 

 

“No we are,” she smiledas he paid the cab and they both got out. “Pass me you’re coat we are going to win this. 

 

 

The red carpet was terrible, it was surrounded my actual famous people and paparazzi that took pictures of him before he was ready and it was not fun but eventually they where in the reception of the theatre and Sarah grabbed some champagne and they made their way to the seats. 

 

Step Seven: Dex is on the paparazzi train, again. 

 

“Derek Nurse’s boyfriend is seen on the red carpet of the new revival of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Sporting a baby blue blazer with a matching garter belt and stockings.” Sarah read out as they sat down. “He is accompanied by a friend who is matching in a pale pink blazer and matching accessories as well. Oh this is awesome,” she smiled as she jammed the coats down onto her seat so she could sit up to see the show properly.

 

“Won’t it shock him, like he might not want to perform with me here,”

 

“Then the crowd will riot, like this is the next big thing and a reckon half the people here are here to see Derek Nurse perform and I cannot wait. This is amazing.” She muttered, “We are doing this.” 

 

“Are we winning this?” He frowned turning his phone off. 

 

“We are totally winning this,” She cheered. 

 

Step eight: Watch the show. 

 

Now Sarah loved Musical Theatre, knew all the call outs and was generally having a bomb ass time. 

 

But Dex, watching his ex boyfriend stand almost fully naked in a pair of bright pink panties and grinding other people, he was not winning at all. Apart from that it was a brilliant show though, and that he could imagine Ford running around back stage tirelessly he was not having a fun time. It was a good show, don’t get him working , looking at the playbill it was apparent to him that you had accomplished actors in all the roles and the people on stage where just loving it as much as the people in the audience. Just he wasn’t loving it.

 

Step Nine: After Party 

 

It was at a classy bar, a place that did that sold more bottles of champagne than of cheap beer. The type of place that probably didn’t mind if yousorted coke in the toilets as long as it was their drugs. But it was filled with rich and famous people that probably and that meant that Sarah had gone mingling to find people to sell to. Naturally this left Dex on his own not that it mattered because he was perfectly content with standing by the wall sipping a themed cocktail called Dammit Janet. 

 

He was just checking his phone, thinking of ditching this party and going home but he had lost track of Sarah and he didn't just want to up and leave without her. So he was strolling through Reddit looking up every so often to see if he recognised anyone. He didn't recognise anyone.

 

So half an hour later and Someone trapped him on his shoulder and he looked up to see someone looking at him angrily. Derek fucking Nurse. Poet, actor, singer. Ex boyfriend was looking at him and looking like he was going to punch him. 

 

Step ten: Get Nursey back with Dex. 

 

Looks like Sarah didn't have to do that though because they where already standing together and she only did it by talking to some rich schmuck and leaving him alone for half an hour, fucking amazing. 

**Author's Note:**

> This is not good but I would appreciate a comment and a Kudos if you liked this.


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